Florida Laws

[laurienurse09]

Hi there,

At the facility in which i work, we often have nurses who come to work after having worked a twelve hour, all night shift at another facility. This is followed by an eight to ten hour day at my place of employment. This means that the nurse has now worked over twenty hours!@!!!! Is this legal? And if not, what can i do? I do not want to be a whistle blower and lose my job, however, i worry for the safety of my patients! Please help and oh, by the way, the DON is aware that they are doing this, so, don't answer with tell the boss!

Thanks

[GCoro002]

I'm not a nurse personally but I have worked in a hospital setting for the last 6 years. I think that if this person hasn't posed any safety issues on their patients, there really isn't much to go by. I would be concerned if she was working over 20 hours at the same facility but since she's employed somewhere else before she comes into your hospital, there technically isn't anything illegal about it -- unless she's making major mistakes. I'm sure they're keeping an eye on that if they're aware she's working those crazy shifts. I know we would be...

Now, if she's working her hours and is performing efficiently, all I can say is "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Just my opinion...

[rjflyn, ASN, RN]

The only concern would be if this person is falling asleep on the job. You might be able to make a complaint to the board of nursing.

Also I do believe there are federal job laws that limit one to 72 hrs in a week. We had a tech that we use to have to cut off his hours because he picked up too many shifts. Though I dont know how this applies when its two different employers.